Hazlerigg Rutland’s Welfare week spanned from the 16th-22nd April. The aim was to help promote welfare areas and make sure that everybody was aware of what was available to them and who to contact if they were in need of anything.

On the Monday we had a smoothie morning to promote healthy eating. With this I also tied in my role as FREEC Rep to promote not letting food go to waste. The event was successful and plenty of people came down to enjoy tasty smoothies.

On Tuesday was dog petting, which is a great way to relieve stress and also a great chance to make a new fluffy friend. This activity provides people with stress management techniques so they can cope with the demands of university.

On Thursday we had a welfare quiz where around 20 people came to participate. This was a great way to increase people’s knowledge on all things welfare.

On the Friday the focus was on sexual health. This is an important issue involving young people. I gave out leaflets and free condoms to those who needed them; people said this was helpful as they didn’t necessarily know where to go for free information or condoms.

On Saturday for International Day, flags were put up around the accommodation and I tried to learn as many different languages as possible from the various international students in Rigg Rut.

On Sunday was balloon release. This was where people who had stresses could write them onto a balloon and then release them into the air; to allow people to perceive their stresses floating away.

Overall the week was a success and got many members of Hall involved, as well as informing people about all the things Welfare has to offer. On the 9th May, our very own Tess Galunic won on-coming FREEC rep of the year 2018 and Rigg Rut won International Hall of the Year! Massive congratulations to all involved.

This years Alumni and Affiliate weekend, held 4th-7th May was a complete success. The pride themed punch party on Friday started the bank holiday weekend fantastically, and it was great to see so many past and present Rigg-Rut members celebrating pride together. The Alumni football team beat the current hall players and the weekend culminated with beach volleyball in the sun. Pictures from these events can all be found on the Rigg Rut Media page. A big thank you to everyone who attended and we hope to see a great turnout next year.

As everyone knows sport is huge at Loughborough, and the IMS programme is one of the best and most enjoyable experiences here. We are proud to announce that we came 2nd overall in IMS despite being one of the smallest halls on campus.

We won 8 trophies in total which were:

Mixed Badminton

Mixed Volleyball

Mixed Beach Volleyball

Mixed Ultimate Frisbee

Mixed Lacrosse

Women’s 5 a side Football

Men’s Swimming

Men’s Cricket

Despite our small size we are never short on sporting success. We had great league teams in Football, Rugby and Hockey. As well as lots of fun in One Day Events like Dodgeball, Wheelchair Basketball and Tug of War. This is our most successful year in our history and we are only looking to improve next year and hopefully become the IMS champions

Summer Ball is one of the biggest nights of the Hall’s year; it’s the final blow out before people start thinking about exams and always one to remember! This year our venue was Goosedale in Nottingham. The venue overlooks beautiful countryside and is perfect for new profile pics! The hall got on coaches at 6:00pm after the hall tradition of having a few pictures in front of our old building and the famous Loughborough fountain. There was a Champaign reception at the venue and a red carpet off the bus. The dinning room was Gatsby themed with extravagant decorations to suit; however, before sitting down to eat there was time for a few drinks at the bar and pictures with the photographer. We had a starter and main before doing our annual hall awards which varied from Top sportsman to Top Shagger and everything in between. Then it was on to the chocolate fountain, photo booth and dance floor for a few hours. We left the venue at 11:30 and headed back to Loughborough town to hit up nightclub until the early hours of the morning for those who wanted to. Summer ball is a special night and one that the majority would call a highlight of the year. It’s a great opportunity to have a more formal celebration with your friends in hall and reminisce over the past year.

Rigg-Rut Rag hosted a Eurovision party in the Granby for the final (Saturday 13th May), providing score sheets and lots of snacks for £1! We raised £18 for Breast Cancer Now that will also go towards our hall’s Rag total. Everyone involved certainly enjoyed scrutinising the finest musical talent that Europe had to offer!

This years Alumni and Affiliate weekend, held 12th-14th May was a great success. A record 38 people attended the alumni meal including the vice chancellor (Bob). The punch party on the Friday night mixed both past and present hall members well. Alumni won the running man trophy by winning the football 4-2. The weekend concluded with beach volleyball in the sun. Thanks to all that attended and we hope to see even more here next year!

This project is one of my personal favourites. Taking place in a small community centre right in the middle of town, the project lets you interact with Loughborough’s elderly community who are always very welcoming and friendly while at the same time helping them with any technology problems they may be having. This could range from things like how to attach a picture to an email, transferring images of a camera to a laptop or even helping someone set up their new iPad.

Words can’t describe how it feels to be newly elected as the Hazlerigg-Rutland Hall Chairman. Growing up with people from different backgrounds and cultures and in an area where people aren’t very well-off, I learnt to be as compassionate and empathetic towards others as I possibly could. So when I moved from my ends in London to halls in Loughborough University, I instantly knew I wanted to continue sharing the same love to everyone I’d meet.

Little did I know that Rigg-Rut, the smallest hall of accommodation on campus that I chose to live in, would provide me with best opportunities of my life. The opportunity to live with the then Hall Chair Jonathan Ako and be shown the ropes of uni life first-hand. The opportunity to work as Vice Chair for the hall and support the next Hall Chair Jessica Metson through the recent Freshers. The opportunity to take over from Jess and receive advice from herself, Jon and even his predecessor George Hones, carrying on their legacy and at the same time providing something new to this next generation of freshers. I have big plans for the future of our hall. For example, as a starting point and with the help of my incredible and strong new committee, I intend to revamp The Granby so it reaches its full potential. This phenomenal common room of ours is well known for hosting night-time socials and our notorious Punch Parties on campus, but not as many students have spent as much time there as I would have thought to see during the day. To improve it, I will invest in many facilities such as a new pool table, video games console, speakers, equipment for table tennis and darts so The Granby finally feels like a common room for everyone to hang out in. I used to be quite an introverted kid myself so I know what it feels like for those members in Rigg-Rut who don’t necessarily want to party there but want to enjoy The Granby in a rather relaxed setting.

Inclusivity is extremely important so if we can provide such an environment that increases common room usage for more types of personalities, then hopefully it’ll be a step in many towards enhancing their university experience and spreading happiness amongst them one smile at a time. I believe there is nothing more important in life than making everyone else feel happy, welcome and cared for, especially in a small community known as the Rigg-Rut family, and so I hope to help achieve that for the next year as your Hall Chair 2017 – 2018.

Dog walking is one of Rigg-Rut’s favourite action projects and usually fills up very fast due to its popularity. Typically, we take 12 volunteers to walk dogs from a local kennels, College Garth Kennels, for a few hours on a Wednesday afternoon. The kennels only let us walk the friendly dogs, but often they’re quite strong (especially the huskies) which is why we have to walk in pairs, with each pair a few metres apart.

The kennels work with local councils to reunite and rehome stray dogs; therefore by walking these dogs they are able to become more socialised and hopefully more likely to be rehomed. This project has such a positive impact on the local area as it allows for College Garth to rehome more dogs.

So do your part and help Rigg-Rut achieve more points as a hall, but also have a study break and enjoy walking some doggos.

Right at the end of semester 1, where pressure from exams is relieved and the need for celebrating it's at its highest, Rigg-Rut brought back the spirit of the amazing, unforgettable, unbelievable Freshers Week!

We really couldn't leave back the joy of Freshers so we brought it back in the scene in grand Rigg-Rut stile. An all-boys and all-girls day event started Refreshers off to then move on to one of the biggest Punch Parties of the year. It then carried on with DBE, netball and bingo night over the weekend, to the finish off with a great night out in Nottingham. Rigg-Rut was then ready to start the new semester, and make it as memorable as it could only be.